Elevated thoracic bridge

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could offer advice on the elevated thoracic bridge.

I can't push up in a bridge and straighten my arms yet (the starting position before I elevate my feet).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8x6m0iq2045sa0y/elevated thoracic bridge.mov?dl=0

I'm assuming I'm too weak or have poor thoracic mobility.

Are there any progression steps I could try?

Chris have you been following the thoracic bridge stretch series?

yes it's the step in that series I'm referring to. Wesley talks about starting with your feet low for the push up and the moving the feet up the bars when in the up position. 

I'm struggling to get up in the first place. 

Now I understand what you are going for Chris, simply move your feet up the Stahl bars, and then get into the bridge.

Then slowly move your feet down rung by rung while you have your shoulders in the correct position.

If you have difficulty repost and I will help you figure it out.

On 9/23/2017 at 12:09 AM, Chris Toynbee said:

yes it's the step in that series I'm referring to. Wesley talks about starting with your feet low for the push up and the moving the feet up the bars when in the up position. 

I'm struggling to get up in the first place. 

If you are having trouble to push up while feet are low, like you said either you don't have enough strength, or your shoulder mobility is really poor which prevents you from straightening your arms, or both. If you don't think the strength part is a problem (like if you can do 20+ feet elevated pushups no problem), do what Luke suggested. Elevating the feet helps ease the tight shoulders. If strength is a problem, elevating the feet is only going to make it worse, since more of your body weight will be shifted to your hands. Think regular pushups vs feet elevated pushups. Use a resistance band to help you get up in this case. I see @Suzanna McGee doing that, and I'm sure you can get more tips from her

To improve shoulder mobility for bridge, daily elevated cat will help.

Thanks for the advice @Jin Liu and @Luke Searra.

I will try them out and let you know how it goes!

Hi,

It's been a while since I posted this thread.

About a month ago I finally managed to be able to push up to something. I can't do 60 seconds yet and I'm doing quite a bit wrong but I thought I'd post the video anyway.

Once I'm up I know I need to walk my feet up the stall bars but I'm feel a bit unstable so I didn't do it in this video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q835dpu5t6uvhki/elevated thoracic bridge2.mov?dl=0

I also felt more comfortable in the 2nd position (after I adjusted my body further out). However this looks less like the recommended position of the hands under the shoulders.

Should I try and continue to increase the time I can stay up for (closer to 60 seconds) in this position or bring the hands under the shoulders and be satisfied with less time?

I'm not even trying bridge pushups yet until I get better form and endurance on the bridge. Is that the correct approach?